Indexes of aggregate weekly payrolls are calculated by dividing the current month's aggregate by the average of the 12 monthly figures for the base year. Indexes are averages for production and nonsupervisory employees. For basic industries, the payroll aggregates are the product of average hourly earnings and aggregate weekly hours. At all higher levels of industry aggregation, payroll aggregates are the sum of the component aggregates.

The series comes from the 'Current Employment Statistics (Establishment Survey).'